How To Start Saving For a Down Payment On Your First Home

One of the toughest parts of buying a home is finding money to save on a monthly basis. This can take a person years as not everyone has a large amount of expendable income after bills are deducted for the month. The best thing that a person can do is take a proactive approach to saving making financially wise decisions each time they can. There are plenty of resources online like that of The Money Alert that can help you learn about saving money as well as alert you of any mistake you might be making. The following are tips to start saving for a down payment on your first home.

Cut Entertainment Spending

Far too much money is spent on entertainment like eating out as this can be done for a fraction of the price at home. If you must eat out pick a restaurant where they have specials on the day that you desire to go out as this can slash prices for a great meal. Finding free things to entertain yourself is more than just possible, you just have to do the appropriate research. Cities have free movies in the park and nature can be great entertainment whether you take a nice bike ride or go for a hike.

Freelance For Extra Income

If you have good writing or web design skills you can start freelancing nearly immediately. Finding clients will not be as difficult as one might think as there are freelancer platforms that connect clients with freelancers. This can be the perfect place to build up a client base and you can be earning from the comfort of home. People also need virtual assistants whether it involves setting meetings or checking an email for grammatical mistakes. The freelance economy is here to stay so supplement your income by picking up a few freelance projects.

Invest Your Money

Your money sitting in a savings account is not allowing your money to work for you. This does not mean that you should invest it in some high risk stock but rather a more stable mutual fund or bond. This will allow you to make passive income on the money that you have already saved. The home is going to be an investment as well as it is one of the largest investments that individuals make during the lifetimes. Picking the right investing strategy can lead you to have your down payment much earlier than expected.

Look Into Programs For First Time Homebuyers

There are federal programs for first time homebuyers that allow a buyer to put down as low as 5 percent on a home. A real estate agent working with you will let you know about this program as soon as you tell them this will be your first home. This does not mean that you should use one of these programs as you can skip paying mortgage insurance with a down payment of at least 20 percent of the total sale price.

As you can see there are tips that will help you put a payment down on your first home in a matter of months. Start saving today so you can stop renting and get into a home!